Abstract
Tissue engineering by self-assembly allows for the formation of living tissue substitutes, using the cells’ innate capability to produce and deposit tissue-specific extracellular matrix. However, in order to develop extracellular matrix-rich implantable devices, prolonged culture time is required in traditionally utilized dilute ex vivo microenvironments. Macromolecular crowding, by imitating the in vivo tissue density, dramatically accelerates biological processes, resulting in enhanced and accelerated extracellular matrix deposition. Herein, we describe the ex vivo formation of corneal stromal-like assemblies using human corneal fibroblasts and macromolecular crowding.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been supported from: Science Foundation Ireland, Career Development Award Programme (grant agreement number: 15/CDA/3629) and Science Foundation Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund (grant agreement number: 13/RC/2073). Mehmet Gürdal was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Science Fellowships and Grant Programmes Department (BİDEB), Programme of 2214-A Ph.D. Research Scholarship for Abroad. The authors have no competing interests.
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Gürdal, M., Ercan, G., Zeugolis, D.I. (2020). Formation of Corneal Stromal-Like Assemblies Using Human Corneal Fibroblasts and Macromolecular Crowding. In: Ahearne, M. (eds) Corneal Regeneration. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2145. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0599-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0599-8_9
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